The major project goal is to develop an understanding of the ways in which the relationships between the mental health and criminal justice system may be changing. The specific focus is on the interorganizational relationships between the local jail and the local, county and state components of the mental health system. The core conceptual framework of this investigation is an interorganization one. In fact, a core aim of the research is to determine the extent to which such a perspective can by useful in understanding the processes of jail-mentality health interactions. The methodology for this study is an incremental one starting with field work and semistructured interviews and ultimately proceeding to a mailed structured questionnaire. The data will be gathered from 32 locales throughout the U.S. represented at regional NIC jail-mental health training workshops in 1979. Site visits with intensive interviewing will produce data from which more refined indicators of interorganizational relationships will be developed. Initially, program descriptors will also be developed focusing on contextual, situational, processual, and structural dimensions of the jail - mental health system interfaces. Analyses of the questionnaire data will rely heavily on covariance and regression analyses to identify whether major program types are empirically distinguished and how these types interact with the contextual, situational, processual and structural dimensions in achieving a high level of program development and/or perceived program effectiveness. Among the major products will be a delineation of the range of approaches jails might take in developing mental health services, given their community settings, the availability of mental health services, and other environmental considerations. An assessment will be made of the prospects for devising other environmental considerations. An assessment will be made of the prospects for devising typologies as planning templates against which jails wishing to build mental health services might guage themselves to decide what program approach would have the highest probability of success.